A Touch of Class

Virtually
all evening bus services in Redditch were withdrawn in
the late 1990's following vehicle vandalism and
driver assaults. Worcestershire County
Council looked at options to improve bus
provision in Redditch and in 2003 the County Council
successfully won Urban Bus Challenge funding from the
Department for Transport. The funding was based around
improving access to the Alexandra Hospital from as much
of the town as possible and helped First Midland Red
purchase new low floor Enviro 300 single deck vehicles.
For evening provision the Council decided to look to a
taxi operator and have
created a
three vehicle Taxibus service giving a 20-minute
frequency on the service 51 to/from Batchley which is
linked to a similar 20-minute frequency on the 55/56
routes. The latter routes also serve the Alexandra
Hospital. The service was operated by a taxi operator "A
touch of class" who acquired brand new 7-seater
minibuses for the services. The taxibus service operated
until 12th April 2009 when the contract for the evening
services to Crabbs Cross and Batchley were renumbered 55A
and 56A and passed to Diamond Bus .